East Haven beach cleanup needs volunteers Saturday morning

Mark Zaretsky, Register Staff

Published 12:00 am, Friday, September 30, 2011

EAST HAVEN -- When Mayor April Capone met on Cosey Beach Avenue in Momauguin last week with U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and FEMA officials, her first concern was how and when the town could get rid of all the debris on the beach after Hurricane Irene swept it out of marshes, wrecked houses, garages and who-knows-where.

The answer to the "when," is 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. today. The answer to the "how" is that neighbors are going to come down and do it themselves to help other neighbors.

Who's doing it?

Well, maybe you.

Anyone who wants to participate just needs to meet Town Councilman Joe Santino, D-2, who is organizing the cleanup, at 9 a.m. at Cosey Beach Avenue by the marsh, at the walkway that leads to the backside of the Village at Mariner's Point. Look for the blue tent.

Volunteers may contribute for an hour or longer and are asked to bring gloves, trash bags and other supplies, if they have them.

Anyone with questions can call Santino at 203-687-2218.

Santino is the principal organizer, but he's got plenty of help, including from Annarose Russo, a Momauguin resident who is an organizer of the town's annual Independence Day fireworks extravaganza, and Shawn Hopkinson, who started the People Helping People neighborhood relief effort after Irene.

Hopkinson is now part of the group organizing a benefit for the town's Irene victims that will be held Oct. 15 at East Haven High School.

Why get involved?

"I'm from down there all my life," said Santino, who now lives nearby on Coe Avenue. "We're just trying to restore a little bit of the quality of life for these people.

"At low tide, we're going to try to see what we can get out. ... Anything we can get, we're going to get," he said.

"From what these people went through, it's terrible," Santino said. "So if we can make it a little bit easier for them, we did our jobs."

Santino put up some fliers, and Russo, Hopkinson and others bounced it around Facebook a bit.

"We're expecting maybe 50 volunteers," Santino said. "We're not looking to turn this into a big dog and pony show. All it is is people helping people."

The cleanup will be done by hand, he said. "We can't go in there with any machines or anything, because they'll flip out on us," he said, referring to various regulatory agencies.

In the wake of the storm, "This community really came together," said Russo, who also helped in the post-storm relief work. "Momauguin people and the rest of this town really came together and showed how a community can and will step up when needed."

Beyond today, relief efforts will include a cutathon 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday, when the Paul Mitchell School of North Haven's mobile salon bus will be stopped in the beach parking lot across Coe Avenue from The Sandpiper offering $10 haircuts. Proceeds will go to town families affected by Irene.